Super League shake up on the way?

Halifax could be playing Super League opposition again in 2015 under radical plans to restructure professional rugby league.

Courier Sport understands the Rugby Football League has tabled plans that - if they are given the green light by the clubs - would initially herald two top divisions of 12 teams.

The second tier would be made up of the top nine Championship sides, including Fax, plus two axed Super League clubs and revamped French outfit Toulouse.

Both leagues would be divided again midway through the season into three divisions of eight, based on league positions, pitching the top four second-rank teams against the bottom four from Super League over the second half of the year.

The final tables at the end of the season would then be used to draw up the starting positions for the following year, effectively reintroducing promotion and relegation.

For Fax, it could mean that a top nine finish next season, a top four place midway through 2015 and a top four finish in the eight-team competition that would follow would see them dining at the game’s top table with the likes of Wigan and Leeds from the start of 2016.

There are a number of obvious questions, notably how the salary cap - under which Super League sides can spend up to £1.4million but Championship clubs only £300,000 - fits into the proposals, which are similar to ones recently rejected by Scottish Premier League football clubs.

The structure of the game beneath the second tier is also unclear.

The complex plans are the result of the root-and-branch review of the game conducted by the acting chairman Maurice Watkins following the exit of former chief, and licensing enthusiast, Richard Lewis.

A spokesman for the RFL said several possible options had been placed before a meeting of top flight clubs on Wednesday, and were due to be presented to the Championship clubs next week, but that it was “too early to speculate” further.

Criticism of the game’s structures has become increasingly strident in recent weeks, with Leeds and England prop Jamie Peacock and former Test forward turned TV pundit Phil Clarke both voicing concerns over the quality of play in Super League and calling for a reduction in the number of teams.

It had been thought four leagues of 10 was the likely solution, but that possibility appears to be receding.